(NAPSI)—The National Safety Council reports that half of all teen drivers will be involved in a car crash before graduating from high school. Listening to these helpful tips and utilizing available technology can help you keep your teen driver safer.
Advice For Teens
A safer driving experience can be achieved with deliberate steps like wearing your seat belt, putting your phone in your glove compartment, and obeying the speed limit. Driving at slower speeds will be especially helpful when driving in unfamiliar or difficult-to-navigate areas.
Plan ahead! Knowing how to get to your destination ahead of time and how long it will take to get there will provide for a less stressful trip.
Focusing on the road and not the passengers in the car can also help you reduce risk while driving—and perhaps the most important, if not the most obvious piece of advice, is to never drink and drive. Drinking and driving is illegal and impairs judgment and reaction time.
Advice For Parents
Being the parent of a new teen driver can be stressful and it’s a task parents must be vigilant about. Keeping a few tips in mind when preparing teens for driving can help you ready them for the responsibilities of the road.
Understand and educate your teen about the laws your state has for the types and number of passengers allowed in your teens’ car and the times they are allowed to be driving. After this time is passed, only allow your teens to increase the amount of passengers and times they drive if you feel they are ready.
Be a good example—make sure that you observe the rules of the road while driving to demonstrate the importance of safety. By occasionally riding with your teen, you can observe their driving skills to make sure they understand and are following all laws and safety precautions.
Tim Hollister, a Teen Safe Driving Advocate and author of “Not So Fast: Parenting Your Teen Through the Dangers of Driving,” advises parents to approach their teens’ driving as if they were air traffic control and their teen were flying an airplane. “Every time your teen gets behind the wheel,” Hollister encourages, “go through a safety checklist, have a flight plan, and use monitoring technology to make sure that flight plan is being adhered to.”
New technology, such as Hum by Verizon, allows parents to receive the type of information needed to help their teens drive safely. For example, parents can receive alerts if their teen drives outside a boundary they set or over the speed they select. Hum also offers pinpoint vehicle location, safety scores and crash detection so that emergency help is close at hand.
When it comes to your family’s safety while driving, you can never have too much information. Utilize these tips and technologies to help encourage safe driving every time your teen gets behind the wheel.
Learn More
You can purchase the Hum device and learn more by visiting a Verizon Wireless retail store or www.hum.com.